Sometimes, we are all just numbers

At some point this morning, the 7 billionth person will be born (probably somewhere in India.) According to the BBC, you can calculate what number person you were, when you were born:

It seems that I was 3,040,107,056th person alive on Earth at the time of my birth and I was the 76,692,388,688th person to have lived since history began. It makes you feel rather insignificant, doesn't it?

BTW, 395 people have been born while you were reading this


Happy Halloween! I've changed my mind about costumes; this year I'm going as the spokes person for Tooth Decay (it's a large secret East Coast syndicate backed primarily by Big Sugar and Dental Schools.)

I'd have written more but I'm way behind in slipping razor blades in apples.

( For all you parents - remember to sort your kids candy later tonight. It is not a crime to save all the good chocolate for yourself. Tell'em you have to sample it for poison.)


October 31, 1945 -
René Clair's adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery And Then There Were None was released in the US on this date.



This movie, as all existent versions of "Ten Little Indians," is based not on the novel by Agatha Christie but on her very similar play. While the identity of the murderer is the same in both versions, the outcome of who survives the murderer's plot is very different.


October 31, 1949 -
Cecil B. DeMille's wonderfully campy (although not intentional) version of Samson and Delilah, Starring Hedy LaMarr and Victor Mature premiered on this date.



At the premiere, Cecil B. DeMille asked Groucho Marx what he thought of the film. Groucho replied, "Well, there's just one problem, C.B. No picture can hold my interest where the leading man's tits are bigger than the leading lady's." DeMille was not amused, by Marx's remark, but Victor Mature apparently was.


Today in History:
October 31, 1926 -
Harry Houdini dies in room 401 of Grace Hospital in Detroit on this date.

The escape artist was killed by diffuse peritonitis, after having undergone an emergency appendectomy.



Contrary to popular belief, the fatal appendicitis could not have been caused by a punch to the stomach.




October 31, 1950 -
John Franklin Candy, the great Canadian comedian and actor,







was born on this date.


October 31, 1984 -
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was not having a good day. Daughter of Nehru, the first prime minister of the newly independent India and fashion plate of the 60's, Mrs. Gandhi was running late for an interview with Peter Ustinov, who was filming a documentary for Irish television. Two Sikh members of her bodyguard, annoyed with her involement in the storming of the Golden Temple (The holiest of Sikh sites) took this moment to express their vexation with their boss and assassinate her on the spot.



This sparked Hindu-Sikh clashes across the country. Four days of anti-Sikh rioting followed in India. The government said more than 2,700 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed, while newspapers and human-rights groups put the death toll between 10,000 and 17,000. Once again, people should be checking references for more carefully.


October 31, 1993 -
Federico Fellini, considered as one of the most influential and widely revered film-makers of the 20th century, passed away on this date.



He made some 24 films including La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and Amarcord all hallmarks throughout the 50’s and 60’s Art House world.



And so it goes